Lady
Zoë Maynard
Personal details
Born
Zoë Ruth Davis Cumberbatch

1926
Died (aged 92)
Nassau, Bahamas
Political partyProgressive Liberal Party
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1947)​
Children5, including Allyson Maynard Gibson
Parent
RelativesKathleen Davis (aunt)

Zoë Ruth Davis, Lady Maynard (née Cumberbatch; 1926 – 10 December 2018) was an important figure in the Bahamas known for advancing women's rights.

Early life

In 1926 her parents, surgeon Roland Cumberbatch and musician Meta Davis Cumberbatch, moved from Trinidad to the Bahamas when her father accepted a post from the Colonial Medical Service.[1] She was born Zoë Ruth Davis Cumberbatch the same year.[2]

Military service

During World War II Maynard, still a teenager, enlisted as a private in the Auxiliary Territorial Service and was stationed in Jamaica.[3] She had numerous duties, including communications.[3] At the time of her death in 2018 she was reported to have been the last living female veteran from the Bahamas.[3]

Career and family

On 17 January 1947, a little more than a year after the end of the war, she married Clement T. Maynard, the son of a builder and a suffragist.[2] Trained as a medical technologist, he would go on to become a politician and eventually deputy prime minister.[4] Maynard and her husband had five children: Julian (died 1995),[5] Peter, Allyson, David and Clement III. (Her husband also had one daughter from a previous relationship.)[6] Their daughter Allyson would go on to become the country's attorney general.

For some time, Maynard worked for the British Overseas Airways Corporation.[7] Arthur Foulkes recalled that she and her husband used the travel opportunities afforded by her career to purchase books for their comrades in the progressive movement.[8] (Books by radical West Indian authors such as C. L. R. James, Frantz Fanon and George Padmore were not easily accessible in the colony.)[8] She also served as secretary general of the Airport, Airline and Allied Workers Union.[3]

A supporter of the progressive movement and women's rights, she worked closely with her mother-in-law, Georgianna Kathleen Symonette, during the suffrage movement.[3] In January 1968, a year after her husband was first elected to the senate, Maynard became the first woman to register for jury duty in the Bahamas.[3][9] She also served as secretary for the Women's Branch of the Progressive Liberal Party.[3]

In 1989, Clement Maynard was appointed a Knight Bachelor and Mrs. Maynard became Lady Zoë Maynard.[10]

Later life

After her husband's death in 2009, Maynard began studying pottery and painting.[11] Her works were exhibited in group shows such as "The F Factor: Female Artists of The Bahamas".[12]

Maynard died on 10 December 2018 at the age of 92.[3][2] In a tribute, opposition leader Philip Davis called her "a freedom fighter, particularly for women’s rights and in the arts."[13]

References

  1. ↑ Maynard, Peter D. (2010). Great Awakening: Meta Davis Cumberbatch, "Mother of the Arts". p. 167.
  2. 1 2 3 "Tributes pour in following the passing of Zoe, Lady Maynard this morning..." Bahamas Press. 10 December 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ward, Jasper (11 December 2018). "Lady Maynard dies at 92". The Nassau Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  4. ↑ "Newsletter". The Bahamas Historical Society. October 2009.
  5. ↑ "Right Back Before 1967 -- Sir Clem's Book". bahamasuncensored.com. 29 July 2007.
  6. ↑ "Hon. Sir Clement T. Maynard" (PDF). The Bahamas Public Service Union. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 September 2014.
  7. ↑ "Free Holidays for Top Seat-Sellers". B.O.A.C. Review. September 1964. p. 28 – via Google Books.
  8. 1 2 Foulkes, Arthur (11 October 2009). "A Tribute to Sir Clement Maynard". Bahama Pundit. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  9. ↑ "First Woman Applies for Jury Service". The Nassau Guardian and Bahamas Observer. 30 January 1968. Retrieved 15 January 2022 – via Bahamianology.
  10. ↑ "Bahamas Prime Minister and Officials Pay Tribute to the Late Sir Clement Maynard". The Bahamas Weekly. 14 October 2009.
  11. ↑ Gibson, Jeffarah (18 December 2013). "Lady Maynard Shines In Ceramic Art Exhibition". The Tribune. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  12. ↑ D'Aguilar Foundation (22 September 2011). "Popop Artists In F Factor" (Press release). Retrieved 17 January 2022 – via Popop Studios.
  13. ↑ "Lady Zoe Maynard Dies, Aged 92". The Tribune. 10 December 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
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